Are women artists bad at promoting and marketing their work?

Why aren't there many successful women artists? When we see around the world there are as many women artists as men. But when we take success into account, the rate is very low for women artists.
Take for example, art auctions. Most of the work for bidding is from men. Most of the art that get high bids also belong to men.
When we see the lists of the best or successful artists majority of the names belong to men.
When I saw a list of great artists, I could hardly find any names of women.

I searched for reasons & found some.
Maybe women artists are unable to market their work well.
May be they are not be able to utilize promotional strategies well.
Maybe they will be satisfied with slight success and not very aggressive in their approach because of various reasons that tie them down.

These must be the reasons why women lag behind in success rate although they have talent in abundance.

Replies to This Discussion

Thanks for your reply , Minnie. I am trying to promote a separate on line art gallery specifically designed for women artists in collaboration with Europe based women for a change foundation & some galleries around the world. The work is going very slow but I am trying to hasten things now. Let me see what I can do about it. I cannot do it alone & I need the cooperation of other women too.
Krishna

Minnie W. Shuler said:

I agree but I also think it has something to do with the way society has viewed women artists. For som many hundreds of years professions belonged only to men....women birthed and raised the children. Also, and sadly still so, women are not considered to be as good as men in art of any kind...just look at the history of male actors who played the parts of women for so long. They were, sadly, considered genetically inferior and simply unable to put the passion in their art that men could. Such is nonsence but it still has it's overtones present in the art circle. Up until rlelatively a few years ago women pursued art only as a passtime and parlor entertainment...painting was considered a must for a well educated, well bred woman woman and desirable as a cultured man's wife...not as something to be promoted but rather something to relish. This doesn't speak highly of the male dominence in our world but sadly still persists. It was a product of the times and customs which I am glad have changed. Who would have thought a hundred years ago that a woman, from India no less, would create and nurture a worldwide network of artists, muscians, actors etc. ? I am sure they could use some increase in marketing skills, but that is not all that is wrong. I'm glad it has changed and is changing. Tell the museum curators.

I also have worked on various projects to motivate women to express their talents....with slow success. I think that women (in general) are always on the verge of burn out from the many demands on their time. Men come home from work and usually put their feet up. Women come home from work and feed kids, husbands, animals and neighbors...while cleaning and preparing all the other thousands of things we are just naturally expected to do. Highly successful (in the outside of home world) women come home from work and manage charities and other social functions along with household management etc. Women at home spend SO much time trying to prove themselves okay for not working outside the home....that they are busy to distraction! Women are usually like a train engine with a LOT of diverse cars dragging behind. SO...when women have free time they concentrate on things like beauty and mindless things to help compensate for the burn out and stress. The other aspect I have seen when you take men out of a group is that women seem to need male affirmation to do anything that they do. It is hard for women to function in any capacity without some sort of male input. I think this is a powerful cultural trend that is very slowly changing. Talented female artists and authors in history seem to always die from exhaustion or some other horrible death. If they are really good then usually some man comes along and the woman gives up on her art for whatever reason. I think women just have a hard time embracing their talents and place in the world. I think I have forgot what the question was and may be getting off point, but I think that this is a multi faceted problem with no simple answer. AND...still within society.....if women are not "in their place" men get nervous and usually don't know what to do and go out of their way to either squash out the women's talent...or ignore it as a whole within society. Frankly, I think it has a lot to do with what I started saying....time! When do women have time to do art let alone market it? Usually not much!

As much as I can tell - women are definitely not being satisfied with a slight success when they know they are good artists. But, still, in our modern society man are handeling most of the key-positions , and they (man) would open the door for their male-friend more willingly than to a woman artists. (I believe it is about men's ego)
In Israel things are changing all the time for the better - more women are running art galleries, many great women artists are presented in the museums, many are teaching in art academies and hold important positions.
I find that women are being assertive enough now and doing a lot for their interests,partly thanks to the coaching sessions we have here,and thanks to open-minded man who are cooperating with them and are not afraid of women :)
Basically it is also a matter of personality - will one or will he/she not do for themself - not only about art. Women are getting stronger in any meaning, and it is pronounced also in art and business.

My view is that woman are perceived , "although very talented" as boring and sensible. This is in no way my perception but women themselves towards woman artists. Where as the man has always had this wildness and romantic hardship, bordering on the madness within himself, creating this mythical character. So this gives the male the upper hand in the perception of how the population look as to what an artist or poet should be. The male just seems to be the more interesting character. Again this is only a thought.

Glad to hear that you are promoting women artists too. Do you promote women from other parts of the world too?
Krishna

Abd A. Masoud said:

Hello to all beloved member and colleges

I think some times things are going totally different than what we are planning in this life.

Woman’s are thinking much about many aspects before they are taking a decision and this has to do with there emotional way of thinking.

Men do take risk, do not calculate as god as women and that is why you find the rate of success is higher than the women but the in the meantime the rate of lost is higher to.

I do not have much experience in online and virtual gallery system but in the realty I am having a good participation from women in my gallery till the mean time.

The Rearte gallery is a non profitable private initiative which was launched in order to give a chance for known and unknown artist to present themselves and there Work in an exclusive and representative atmosphere in Vienna - Austria. www.rearte-gallery.at

The main idea behind the Rearte gallery is to connect Artist from different countries and assist them to show there work in a group exhibition with other artist from the region (Austria).

On Dec. 2008 the Rearte Gallery was opened officially and despite the short period since that time I had 8 women participation versa 4 men participation in the Gallery activities.

I was reading the above comment of the other member and it is hard for me to understand why do women do not succeeds in reality

Sure. I fully agree with you. Women really dont know how to promote art or their writings like men do. But what is the solution?
Why cant we all join together and think of something- some outlet?
Usha Rai

Marlene Dumas and Yayoi Kusama are some of the most expensive living artist in the world!,
Even expensier than "men's art", anyway, I haven't really checked prices on the artist or all the women since the neolithic to our days!, as far as I know there were many talented women throught the ages, that them works are expensive!.
This is a good site to start! :)
Have a nice day!http://www.wendy.com/women/artists.html

Okay, I visited the sites provided by some of the members & went through the lists. But the Question still remained unanswered. Why don' t we see the names of these women in the most famous artists list? Why don't their work get the same treatment as that of the famous men artists? Do we talk about them like we do about Picasso , van Gough, Rembrandt, da Vinci & Michaelangelo? Please answer the Q straight. Giving one or two examples won't suffice.
Krishna

Arthur P. said:

Marlene Dumas and Yayoi Kusama are some of the most expensive living artist in the world!, Even expensier than "men's art", anyway, I haven't really checked prices on the artist or all the women since the neolithic to our days!, as far as I know there were many talented women throught the ages, that them works are expensive!. This is a good site to start! :) Have a nice day!
http://www.wendy.com/women/artists.html

Sure. I fully agree with you. Women really dont know how to promote art or their writings like men do. But what is the solution? Why cant we all join together and think of something- some outlet?
Usha Rai

But why aren't the works of women not treated on par with the works of men. Lots of women are complaining. You might not accept the facts but truth is truth. You cannot brush it under a carpet. We need answers & solutions to the problem.

Shailendra Tiwari said:

It is ridiculus to seperateart by gender in fact noart is complete without participation of women or vice versa